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MODERN WORLD 



F', M.SHELDON 





Class _k:__S_SJ 

Book 

Copiglitl!*. 

COEKRIGHT DEPOSHi 



THE BIBLE 

IN OUR MODERN 

WORLD 



THE BIBLE 

IN 

OUR MODERN WORLD 



V~ BY 

F.^M. SHELDON 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON CHICAGO 



^^1 



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Copyright 1917 
By F. M. SHELDON 



MAR 29 1917 



THB PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 

©GIA460132 



i 



s 



TO MY DAUGHTERS 

EVELYN AND HELEN 

TWELVE AND THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE, AND TO THE 

YOUTH OF OUR LAND, WITH THE HOPE THAT 

THEIR VIEW OF THE BIBLE AND RELIGION 

MAY BE VITAL AND ADEQUATE 

IN ALL THE ENLARGING 

EXPERIENCES OF 

THEIR LIVES 



FOREWORD 

This little book attempts to show how the dif- 
ficulties in Biblical and religious interpretation, 
incident to our greatly increased scientific and 
other knowledge, may so be met as to conserve 
all vital Christian truth, adjust our religion to 
present-day knowledge, and enable us so to 
teach the Bible to our youth as to save them the 
strain of violent readjustments in religious think- 
ing and develop in them Christlike purpose and 
character. The book attempts to approach the 
subject helpfully and treat it constructively. It 
is intended to suggest a point of view and method 
for further study. 

The substance of these chapters was first given 
to my church people in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 
and was then published through the kindness and 
generosity of the Men's Club. 

They have now been thoroughly revised and 
considerable new material has been added, espe- 
cially the major portion of the chapter on '*The 
Question of Authority." 

The writer has borrowed suggestions from two 
very helpful books: "God's Message to the 
Human Soul/' by the late John Watson of Eng- 
land, and "The Use of the Scripture in The- 
ology," by the late W. N. Clarke of Colg^ate. 
These and "The New Appreciation of the Bible," 
by Selleck, will be found specially helpful to 
those who wish to carry further this line of 
study. ' F. M. s. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

I The Problem and How to 

Approach It . . . 1 

II The Rescue of Essential 

Christianity . . . 15 

III The Question of Authority 27 

IV Finding and Teaching the 

Positive Values • . 41 



I. THE PROBLEM AND HOW TO 
APPROACH IT 

1 Thess. 5:21, '* Prove all things; holdfast that which is 
good:* 

The world in which we live is vastly diflferent 
from that of our fathers. It is not that the 
world has changed, but that our information re- 
garding it has increased. The horizons of human 
knowledge have been pushed back amazingly. 
This increase in knowledge has greatly modified 
our views of the world and of life. 

In most spheres of activity account has been 
taken of thi*^ new information. Its meaning for 
certain portions of our lives has been thought 
out along constructive lines and our programs 
modified accordingly. 

Among considerable groups of people the bear- 
ing of this new data upon the interpretation of 
our Bible and our religion has been duly con- 
sidered, but the great majority of people have 
given scant attention to it. 

We would not consider our youth fitted to meet 
the demands of present-day life if they were 
trained in schools which took no account of this 
new knowledge. Yet we permit many of our 
young people to go from the home and the church 
into the college or out into the world with little 
or no knowledge of the bearing of this new data 
upon the Bible and religion. When they discover 
that the interpretation of religion which has been 

[I] 



THE PROBLEM 

given them takes no account of well known and 
easily available facts their faith may be subjected 
to serious strain. In that case they must either 
turn from the most fully attested and widely 
accepted facts or go through a painful process of 
readjusting their religious thinking. Some who 
have been taught that the Bible must be inerrant 
in all points or untrustworthy in any, that it all 
stands or falls together, are in danger of taking 
their former teachers at their word and throwing 
the Bible and religion over altogether, in case 
they find data incompatible with that view. 
Others, feeling that the facts tend to lessen the 
old type of authority and not having been shown 
the greater and truer authority, gradually become 
indifferent. Still others cling to the old interpre- 
tation of religion but keep it separate from all 
their other thinking and are likely to be in con- 
stant fear lest it be undermined. 

Unless parents, Bible and religious teachers 
reinterpret the Bible and religion for the young 
sympathetically and helpfully in the light of pres- 
ent-day knowledge, they are in danger of getting 
these facts through people out of sympathy with 
religion, who use the data to destroy the old 
rather than to build something better. 

Parents are in danger of misunderstanding 
their young people, of thinking that they are 
receiving dangerous teaching, and of trying to 
force upon them their own interpretations of the 

[2] 



THE PROBLEM 

Bible and religion. Young people may misun- 
derstand their parents, or find their interpreta- 
tions inadequate, and think them behind the 
times. If we identify our particular interpre- 
tation of the Bible and religion with the Bible 
and religion themselves, the young may come to 
feel that since they can no longer accept the par- 
ticular interpretation they must reject the Bible 
and religion also. 

One reason many of our young people are not 
given an interpretation of religion in harmony 
with modern data is, that large numbers of 
parents and Sunday-school teachers, who no 
longer hold the former view of the Bible, have 
never been shown how to teach it constructively 
in the new way. Thus there is likely to be less 
Bible teaching in the home and the teaching in 
the Church School is too often from the old in- 
adequate viewpoint. 

This situation is also the cause of much mis- 
understanding and criticism between colleges and 
universities on the one hand and some parents 
and churches on the other. The schools must be 
true to the facts, which facts necessitate a rein- 
terpretation of the Bible and religion. Thus 
parents and churches which identify the Bible 
and religion with their own interpretations of 
these are likely to think the schools irreligious 
and deliberately aiming to undermine religion. 
Parents and churches have not always appre- 

[3] 



THE PROBLEM 

ciated the difficult task they create for the schools, 
and the schools have too often failed to appreciate 
the vital interests involved and so have not been 
as sympathetic, constructive and helpful as they 
ought. It is much easier to break down old in- 
terpretations than it is to build up new and better 
ones. Most of our effort should be given to the 
latter task. 

If parents and churches continue to teach to 
their young views of the Bible and religion which 
take no account of what is common and fully 
accepted knowledge in the schools, they must not 
be surprised when their youth go through the 
most severe religious crises, if they become 
estranged from the former interpretations and 
possibly from religion itself. We should not sub- 
ject our young people to this unnecessary strain 
and the church should give parents such definite 
assistance that they and the church may enable 
the young to avoid the danger. On the other 
hand leaders and teachers whose emphasis is 
primarily negative and destructive are subject to 
just criticism from all concerned. 

Not only is this situation perilous to our youth 
and the cause of serious misunderstandings but 
those of us who should know the better way and 
be teaching it to the young are not making such 
use of our Bible as we should. Some people 
are gradually and of necessity being loosed from 
former positions; the old motives, sanctions and 

[4] 



THE PROBLEM 

authorities are becoming less potent, and they 
have not yet arrived at the new position and 
found the more compelling motive. This makes 
it easy for them to drift away from positive re- 
ligion. Some would still keep their Bible and 
religion from the test which the new data brings. 
Thus they have a kind of hothouse faith, un- 
suited to all kinds of outdoor weather. It dare 
not stand in the open of the intellectual arena, 
and cannot command the respect of thinking men. 
Others, infatuated with the new and having 
scant sense of religious and life values, are in 
danger of using the modern data too largely to 
destroy the old rather than to construct some- 
thing better. Some ministers take it for granted 
that their people know the new view and hence 
are not showing them how, definitely, to teach it 
to others. Some attempt to avoid the issue 
through silence, and use religious terms which 
mean one thing to the conservative and quite an- 
other to the person with more modern outlook. 
Such playing with truth stultifies the soul, de- 
stroys the prophetic spirit, leads to misunder- 
standings, and does nothing to solve a problem 
which sorely needs attention. Other ministers, 
feeling that they must be true to their light, speak 
out, but failing to show their people how they 
may conserve all that is vital, find some people 
unwilling to follow; or, expecting their people 
to move much more rapidly than they themselves 

[5] 



THE PROBLEM 

moved, go so fast that the people cannot keep up. 
And then there are some people who would not 
keep up if they could. The present situation also 
makes it increasingly difficult for the minister to 
use his Bible discriminatingly, without being mis- 
understood ; makes it difficult to secure a common 
Biblical background for teaching in the Church 
School, and leaves many parents without the 
necessary knowledge to make the Bible again a 
fully usable book in the home. 

Such conditions should not continue. They 
call for careful, fearless, constructive handling. 
We must be honest and true to light; anything 
else is suicidal. 

The most important factor in securing this 
new world knowledge is the scientific method. 
This method simply means that interpretations 
and conclusions should rest upon the actual facts, 
so far as these are obtainable. Many conclusions 
formerly held, not resting upon facts, were in 
danger of being overturned by this method. 
But ordinary human nature is not pleased to find 
that long-held and stoutly defended conclusions 
are indefensible. Thus we are likely to hold to 
the conclusions and oppose the method which 
reveals facts tending to undermine them. The 
result was that the appearance of this method 
stirred up a warfare of prejudice. The method 
was opposed in all realms of thought, but the 
opposition was naturally most severe in the field 

[6] 



THE PROBLEM 

of religion. The battle has been long and fierce, 
frequently revealing more heat than light, but is 
now, happily, well-nigh over. 

The method was right and is here to stay. It 
has so completely won its way as to be accepted 
today by all thoroughly open-minded seekers after 
truth. We understand now that there never was 
any real conflict between science and religion, 
that truth is a unity, and that what is true in one 
realm cannot be untrue in another. 

By the use of this method, archeology, con- 
temporaneous history and literature, textual and 
historical study, and comparative religions have 
supplied volumes of data bearing upon our Bible 
and its interpretation. All up-to-date colleges, 
universities, theological seminaries, and ministers 
are now acquainted with and take account of this 
data. The result is a greatly modified view of 
the Bible in these circles. This data has come to 
the churches much more slowly, thus leaving con- 
siderable room for misunderstanding between 
those who are most, and those who are least, ac- 
quainted with it and makes the situations 
indicated above. 

But people say, ^'Cannot we be Christian and 
hold the old view?'' Certainly. "Then," they 
reply, "why disturb them?'' The answer is, that 
the facts, which wide-awake, thoughtful people 
constantly meet are the disturbing influence. It 
is our purpose to help those thus disturbed to 

[7] 



THE PROBLEM 

realize that they may frankly accept all newly 
discovered truth and not have the vital elements 
of Christian faith disturbed at all thereby. 

If you will pardon a personal word, permit me 
to say that I went to the seminary a literalist, 
believing every word in the Bible. That unwar- 
ranted view cost me many a sleepless night, and 
made the process of readjustment exceeding 
painful. But by letting some things wait, and 
keeping on with determination to find the way 
through, the new day came, with a better, more 
helpful Bible, and with a far more fundamental 
faith. Like many others, had the former view 
been, as some say, the only view there is, I must 
have become an unbeliever. But no one who fully 
knows the new, cares to or could go back to the 
old ; for the new is better. 

Two incidents from Mr. Moody's life may be 
helpful to some. The famous evangelist was a 
much bigger man than his own theology. Being 
at New Haven when George Adam Smith was 
delivering his lectures on Modern Criticism and 
the Preaching of the Old Testament, he went to 
hear some of them. Mr. Smith was wholly mod- 
ern in his viewpoint, but Mr. Moody nevertheless 
invited him to Northfield, presumably on the 
ground that the students who gathered there in 
conference must meet this modern data and Mr. 
Moody preferred that they get it from a con- 
structive expert. 

[8] 



THE PROBLEM 

After the great campaign in Scotland, Mr. 
Moody invited Mr. Drummond to Northfield. 
This was violently opposed by some who con- 
sidered Mr. Drummond unorthodox. But Mr. 
Moody, knowing how remarkably Mr. Drum- 
mond had been used in preaching to students in 
Edinburgh, insisted that Drummond come, and 
brought him to Northfield, where he proved of 
great service to the students, in large measure 
because of his modern outlook. Thus did Mr. 
Moody stand for men with modern views, when 
convinced that they had a message. 

But why do so many people oppose the open- 
minded, scientific study of the Bible? Remember 
that to be scientific one must take account of all 
the data. This means that we must take account 
of the spirit that is back of and in the Bible, 
otherwise we omit important data and our con- 
clusions will be warped. Dr. Fisher of Yale was 
right when he said, "We cannot fully understand 
the apostles' theology until we possess more of 
their religious experience.'' Scientific study of 
moral and spiritual facts and values means s^uf- 
ficient moral and spiritual experience to give that 
sympathetic approach, apart from which the facts 
can neither be fully discerned nor adequately 
appreciated. 

Is there opposition to the scientific method of 
Bible study because people do not want the truth? 
Surely that cannot be. There are four main 

[9] 



THE PROBLEM 

reasons. First, religion has to do with the deep- 
est and most precious interests of their lives. 
They feel that all the higher meanings and values 
are at stake. Some who have taught the new or 
been primarily concerned with destroying the old, 
have had no adequate conception of these sacred 
interests and so have failed to conserve them. 
Second, false views of the Bible and religion 
cause many to feel that the change of view de- 
stroys the Bible and religion. They have mis- 
takenly bound up these most precious things with 
certain inadequate or false theories about them. 
Third, there is the constitutional opposition to 
change of any kind. Once established in a way 
of thinking, they dislike breaking up the founda- 
tions and battHng their way to truer and 
more adequate conceptions. Fourth, and per- 
haps most serious of all, fear and opposition 
indicate a lack of faith in God, in truth, in 
humanity, — a kind of unbelief of a fundamental 
nature. 

The following convictions would free people 
from fear that religion may be destroyed by 
changed views of the Bible, would lessen their 
opposition, and cause them to welcome all truth 
with reference to the Book. Careful thought 
makes it perfectly clear that religion made the 
Bible, and not the Bible religion, that religion 
was before theology or interpretations of re- 
ligion, that inspiration was before any theory of 

[lO] 



THE PROBLEM 

inspiration, that "man is incurably religious," that 
people were saved before the Bible was written 
or before they knew about the Bible (Abraham 
and Cornelius being conspicuous examples), 
that salvation is not obedience to an inerrant, 
external rule, but the possession of a new inner 
spirit, a change of ruling purpose, an achievement 
of godlike character, moral fellowship with God, 
realized through seeing what God is as revealed 
in Jesus Christ, by turning from sin, and by giv- 
ing our lives to him in trust and obedience. All 
parts of the Bible are not necessary to salvation 
and salvation is in no way dependent upon an in- 
fallible book. It is well to realize that all views 
of the Bible and of religion which are now held 
are but men's interpretations, made in the light 
of such truth as they possessed, and that we are 
in duty bound to reinterpret in the light of our 
larger truth. The past should be treated as a 
guide-post, not a hitching-post. Readjustment 
cannot be made in a moment; time is necessary, 
and it is well to remember that the Bible corrects 
itself if we but let it. In the light of these con- 
victions, people may come to the Bible without 
fear and freely seek all possible light regarding it. 
We have been unnecessarily frightened. The 
message and redemption of Christianity are not 
easily lost or destroyed. We could be Christians 
without the book of Genesis, the book of Num- 
bers, without the entire Old Testament, yes, with 



THE PROBLEM 

only the gospel of Mark or of John. Our Chris- 
tianity would be immeasurably impoverished, but 
we could know the essential spirit, message and 
character of God, as Christ revealed these, could 
turn from sin and come to God in trust and 
obedience. Think for a moment how many 
things, which have been considered as absolutely 
essential to Christianity and over which there has 
been hot controversy, are wholly left out if we 
had but one of these Gospels. And yet we could 
be Christians. 

We have not been fair with this matchless 
Book. We came to it with a theory, which we 
did not get from the Bible, and then tried to 
crush the Book into the theory. It is the theory 
of inspiration. Is the Bible inspired? Is the 
Koran inspired? The Bible nowhere claims to 
be wholly inspired; the Koran does make this 
claim. How shall we tell? There is but one 
test; the height, the depth, the power, the ade- 
quacy of the spirit, the truth, the revelation found 
therein. To be wholly accurate, we should speak 
and think of men as inspired; we should not so 
speak of a book. The theory has been that God 
dictated what is in the Bible to passive men, who 
wrote it down. Think of trying to account for 
the Twenty-Third Psalm or the Epistle to Phile- 
mon by such a method. According to this theory 
everything in the Bible is literal fact; therefore 

[12] . , 



THE PROBLEM 

the earth is only about six thousand years old; 
it IS flat, and is the center of the universe. The 
Bible must be infallible in geology, astronomy, 
biology and history. As a matter of fact, inspira- 
tion has nothing to do with any of these. In- 
spiration is in the realm of religion, morals and 
character. Here is a man who, through years 
of clean living, spiritual growth and singleness 
of purpose, has developed a sensitiveness to the 
spiritual, the divine, and possesses a peculiar in- 
sight into things moral and religious; does he 
thereby know any more about geology, astron- 
omy, biology or historical data? Not a particle. 
The Bible is primarily a book of religion, a 
book of life, a story of redemption. It has his- 
tory, literature, and reflects the science of its 
time, but the distinctive thing is its religious in- 
terpretation and use of all these. Not geology, 
even though Genesis has an account of creation, 
which was a common Semitic tradition, but the 
religious interpretation of creation; not litera- 
ture, though it has all kinds and some of the best, 
for great literature has its source in that which 
produces great lives ; not ethics, though its ethics 
are the loftiest known — religion is its theme; 
it has to do with God and man and the life which 
follows from right relations between them. It 
is a story of God's effort to redeem man by bring- 
ing him into fellowship with himself. This is 
primary ; all else is secondary. This is the great- 

[13] 



THE PROBLEM 

est religious and moral book of the world. Re- 
demption and character are its supreme interests. 
It should be judged in the light of its purpose. 
We lay upon it a burden which it is not able to 
bear and which it was never intended to bear, 
when we try to make it authority in fields outside 
the scope of its purpose. Its lawmakers still 
legislate for the world in our day; its psalmists 
sing of every possible religious experience; its 
prophets were seers of the first rank, statesmen 
of the highest order, whose messages are vital in 
every generation ; its Saviour is the supreme rev- 
elation of our Father ; but the paramount interest 
of all these is religious. 

In its essential message, this Book is of 
most vital importance to our day. The Roman 
gave us law, the Greek art, literature, philosophy ; 
the Hebrew, the commanding religious geniuses 
of the world. Among them the God-conscious- 
ness rose to its highest point and they gave the 
world its universal religion. That religion we 
find in this Book, which is an exhaustless mine 
of religious and moral truth, concretely illus- 
trated in the life and history of this people, whose 
one passion was to know God and walk in his 
ways. We need have no fear for this Book or 
for the religion it reveals, so long as we do not 
ask it to bear witness in spheres alien to its pur- 
pose, and so long as we judge the Book in the 
light of its own best standards. 

[I4T 



11. THE RESCUE OF ESSENTIAL 
CHRISTIANITY 

John 4:24. ''God is a Spirit: and they that worship him 
must worship in spirit and truth. ^^ 

If religion made the Bible instead of the Bible 
making religion, then the Bible is founded in 
the fact of religion, not religion in the fact 
of the Bible, much less in some particular theory 
about the Book. Religion rests in God and in 
the essentially religious nature of man, and the 
existence of these produced our Bible. 

If Christianity is a new life, based on the one 
fundamental principle of love or good-will to 
God and man, if it is following Jesus Christ in 
the committal of our lives to God in trust and 
obedience, rather than conformity to external 
rules and laws, then it makes no difference 
whether or not our Bible is infallible, and we 
may come to it freely, seeking the whole truth 
about it. 

If inspiration is in the realm of morals and has 
to do with spiritual things, then we should expect 
the Bible to reflect the geology, astronomy, biol- 
ogy, and accepted historical data of its time, and 
not feel that the Book is one whit less valuable 
religiously because it is not modern in these 
respects. 

[isl 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

We should keep in mind, also, the oriental and 
Hebrew point of view. The Hebrew thought of 
everything that came to pass as direct from God ; 
there were no second causes. If men's hearts 
were hardened, God did it and aimed to do it. 
If man came to a conclusion about religion, about 
God, he would say, "God said unto me," or "the 
word of God came unto me.'* We shall not un- 
derstand these people unless we keep this in mind. 

Further, there is a difference between what is 
vital for us in religion and what belongs only to 
the history of religion. The Bible ha3 what is 
permanent and vital today, but it also has much 
which had to do with the development of this 
religion toward these permanent elements, but 
which now belongs purely to the history of re- 
ligion. Just as the Missouri Compromise and the 
Dred Scott Decision belong to the history of the 
anti-slavery movement, but are superseded by 
the amendment to the constitution, which abol- 
ished slavery, so, much that belongs to the de- 
velopment of this religion is superseded by the 
final product. The Missouri Compromise and the 
Dred Scott Decision are interesting as history but 
are superseded as legislative or judicial enact- 
ments. 

Again, we may well remember that there is a 
difference between fact and truth. Just as a 
parable or fiction may teach the most profound 
truth, so, much in the Bible which may not be 

[i6] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

fact, may yet teach truth, as, for example, the 
Garden of Eden story. Also, much of our Old 
Testament was written hundreds of years after 
the events it is supposed to describe. The account 
of the sun standing still in the book of Joshua is 
a poetic statement taken from the book of Jashar. 
But this book of Jashar was not written, at the 
earliest, until after the death of Saul and Jona- 
than; for the account of their death in the first 
chapter of Second Samuel was also quoted from 
the book of Jashar. This is but one of many in- 
dications of recent date. Keeping these things 
in mind will help us to understand much that 
otherwise would be exceedingly difficult. 

The view of the Bible which we are consider- 
ing rescues essential Christianity. Christianity 
has a message to humanity, a great task to per- 
form, a redemption to realize, a kingdom of God 
to establish. The task is so great and so well 
worth while that Christianity should be freed 
from all unnecessary incumbrances, stripped to 
what is vital and essential. We must set real 
Christianity free so she can do her work in the 
world. 

Now the Bible is the story of Hebrew and early 
Christian Religion, with Jesus Christ and his 
revelation as the supreme achievement. We are 
accustomed to speak of Jesus Christ as the su- 
preme revelation. Do we understand the sig- 
nificance of such a remark? Do we realize that 

[17] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

by inference we say that what went before was 
not supreme? If we only get the full revelation 
in Jesus Christ, then what went before was only 
partial. 

Jesus himself goes further and insists that the 
former was not only partial but, in some par- 
ticulars, wrong. Turn to the Sermon on the 
Mount and hear him saying, "Ye have heard that 
it was said" thus and so, "but I say diflferently." 
And the things he repudiated and replaced were 
not from the ceremonial law, but from the law 
of Moses governing the relations between man 
and man. Jesus replaced the old standard with a 
new spirit and a new way of life. He criticized, 
selected from and repudiated some of his Bible, 
the Old Testament. He tells his hearers that 
some things which they thought God commanded, 
he did not command at all. 

We find this same freedom of criticism within 
the Old Testament itself. The liberty Jesus took 
was taken by prophets before him. We have 
thought that God commanded the Old Testament 
sacrifices, and our theories of atonement have 
been largely influenced thereby. But did God 
command sacrifices? Read what some of the 
prophets say. "What unto me is the multitude 
of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had 
enough of the burnt-oflferings of rams, and the 
fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood 
of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.*' (Isaiah 

[i8] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

i:ii.) Read the following verses and also 
chapter 66: i-6. "I spake not unto your fathers, 
nor commanded them in the day that I brought 
them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt- 
offerings or sacrifices/' (Jeremiah 7:22.) 
"Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and 
bow myself before the high God? shall I come 
before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a 
year old ? will Jehovah be pleased with thousands 
of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? 
shall I give my first-born for my transgression, 
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and 
what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do 
justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly 
with thy God?" (Micah 6:6-8.) "For I desire 
goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge 
of God more than burnt-offerings." (Hosea 
6:6.) The fortieth Psalm and the sixth 
verse has this to say, "Sacrifice and offering thou 
hast no delight in; mine ears hast thou opened; 
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not re- 
quired." That is what some Old Testament 
writers thought of the sacrificial system. Pos- 
sibly prophets had no objection to sacrifices, so 
long as they did not become a substitute for right 
living; but when they became such a substitute, 
as is always the tendency, then they were a curse. 
Keep in mind that this is what Jesus and the 
prophets say about certain Bible teachings. 

[19] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

If Jesus' revelation was superior to what went 
before, and we want to be Christians, we must 
take our stand with Christ and judge all things 
in the Bible by what was universal and permanent 
in his teaching. And unconsciously we have all 
been doing just this to a certain extent, though 
not carrying it far enough. Take the Bible of 
any person who loves the Book and goes to it 
for comfort, inspiration, strength and guidance, 
and you will find that certain portions are worn, 
showing much use, while other portions are un- 
worn, showing little use. None of us go to some 
books of the Bible very much. Our own need, 
our common sense tell us that portions of scrip- 
ture have no value for us, so far as vital, present- 
day religion is concerned. We may go to these 
portions for the history of religion, or some may 
go to them just because they are in the Bible, but 
they do not feed us. All of us treat portions of 
both Old and New Testaments as if they were 
superseded and not binding. The theories we 
are developing are but the reasons for doing what 
all of us have been doing. Common sense and 
our own need make us all Biblical critics, though 
some ot us do not recognize ourselves as such. 

Taking our stand with Jesus, then, let us look 
further at our Bible. Here is Jesus saying, "God 
is a Spirit ; and they that worship him must wor- 
ship in spirit and truth." And John says, **No 
man hath seen God at any time." Then the an- 

[20] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

thropomorphic representations of God in the Old 
Testament must not be taken literally, but only 
as pictorial efforts to express the sense of his 
presence in concrete, tangible form. **God is a 
Spirit'' and must be worshiped, not in this moun- 
tain alone, nor yet in Jerusalem, but anywhere 
and everywhere, so it be in spirit and in truth. 
Then the efforts to centralize all worship at Jeru- 
salem, which were given as God's command, were 
contrary to Jesus' idea and teaching. 

"God is love," and loves even enemies, and bids 
us love our enemies, if we would be his sons; 
then the hatred of enemies, so often approved in 
the Old Testament, was not taught of God, and 
we cannot think of God as sanctioning, to say 
nothing of commanding, the extermination of all 
the Canaanites. The imprecatory Psalms are the 
expression of human passion and not of God's 
will. 

Contrary to the idea of separation expressed 
through the Holy of Holies in the temple, con- 
trary to the whole pharisaic attitude, which held 
that God kept aloof from sinners, Jesus held that 
this God of love actually seeks sinners, that God's 
attitude does not need to be changed for God and 
man to come together in reconciliation, but that 
man's attitude is what needs to be changed. 
Therefore the entire idea of God's separate- 
ness, of sacrifices as appeasing God, or of 
Christ as being sacrificed to satisfy something 

[21] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

in God, is unchristian. Jesus taught that God 
felt toward the sinful as he himself felt, and 
comes forth to "seek and to save that which was 
lost." Nowhere does he suggest that man must 
win God's favor or avert his wrath by propitia- 
tory sacrifices. On the contrary, he made men 
know that God sought them out with all the 
yearning of a Father's love. 

Jesus held, and so did Paul, that all moral law 
is fulfilled in one word, love. Love to God and 
man, actually living to secure their good, is the 
one guiding principle of the Christian life. There- 
fore all Bible teaching, its history, its parables, its 
laws, and all the experiences it records are valu- 
able so far as they truly show how this love 
should act under varying circumstances. Jesus' 
whole life and teaching were just one marvelous 
illustration of this principle as it works out in life. 

While Paul's religion was the religion of Jesus, 
inner, free, vital, comprehended in the one prin- 
ciple of love, there is considerable in Paul's teach- 
ing which is not vital today and belongs only to 
the history of religion. Some of his arguments, 
used with the Jews, and which started from their 
premise, in order that he might carry them with 
him, have little weight with us. His theology 
and his metaphysics were aflfected by his pharisaic 
antecedents and training, from which he could 
not wholly free himself. Some other portions of 

[22] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

his teaching had to do with conditions and social 
customs which are now obsolete, making this part 
of the teaching of no value to us. 

It should also be frankly recognized that Jesus, 
speaking in the language of his time, seemed to 
sanction some things, such as demonology, which 
we now interpret differently. It is also clear that 
our Gospels, as we now possess them, have con- 
siderable portions attempting to interpret Jesus' 
teaching and person. There is also some that is 
transient, belonging to the expectation and out- 
look of the time, as well as that which is per- 
manent and universal. 

Christianity has had to carry a great load of 
nonchristian material all these centuries. This 
has retarded her progress and offered her enemies 
points of attack. Infidels, like Ingersoll, attacked 
the lower conceptions of God and his commands 
as found, primarily, in the Old Testament, and 
for years the Church felt bound to defend these 
conceptions. Taking our stand with Jesus, and 
viewing the Bible in the truer way, that is no 
longer necessary. Instead of defending them, 
we very readily grant their inadequacy and, in 
cases, their incorrectness. 

Revelation is progressive; there is a develop- 
ment from a lower to a higher plane. Thinking 
that the God of Jesus Christ was actually repre- 
sented in all the words and deeds attributed to 

[231 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

him throughout the Old Testament, came near 
making the Old Testament a millstone about the 
neck of Christianity. The reason European na- 
tions can do some things they are doing in the 
name of religion is because their God is the tribal 
God and the God of battles as indicated in some 
parts of the Old Testament, rather than the God 
whom Jesus revealed. Clarke well says, "We 
read in the Old Testament the history of religion. 
We find realistic pictures of ethical and religious 
life all along the way, and see how men thought 
of God from stage to stage of their advancing 
life. We are not required to think that he was 
rightly pictured on this page or that. We are 
required instead to exercise our moral judgment 
all the way." 

This point of view makes the Bible much less 
difficult to interpret and teach, for it gives us 
an intelligent principle by which to guide our 
sense that some things are superseded, that the 
God whom Jesus revealed could not possibly 
sanction or command many things which are 
attributed to him. 

It took more than fifteen hundred years of 
Hebrew life, during which the great passion of 
this people was to know God and do his will, to 
prepare the way and make possible the supreme 
revelation in Jesus Christ. In our Old Testament 
we have the story of that search for God, with 

[24] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

some mistaken and inadequate ideas as to God*s 
character and will for his people. But their 
search for God made it possible for him to speak 
to them, to work in and through them all along 
the way, and finally through them to give the 
world its best religion. By distinguishing the 
permanent gift of Christ from all else, the Chris- 
tian gift will shine more brightly, work more 
powerfully, and the remainder will be judged 
more truly. Christianity will thus be rescued 
from a dangerous bondage and will be freed to 
build the Kingdom of God in the earth. 

If this view of the Bible disturbs the faith of 
some, the reason is probably that their faith has 
been in the Bible rather than in God, who is the 
real object and foundation of faith. But some 
one replies, "What do we know of God except 
through the Bible ?'* Yes, and what do we know 
of chemistry except through the laboratory, or 
of the star except through the telescope? But 
the laboratory is not chemistry nor the telescope 
the star ; they are the instruments through which 
we know chemistry and the star. Now the Bible 
IS our instrument, our laboratory, our telescope, 
and God is what we seek. Do you not think it 
worth while to improve and fully understand our 
laboratory equipment and our telescope? The 
central thing is that we keep faith in God. And 
to keep faith in God in this modern world it is 

[25] 



ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY 

necessary to have the best and truest view of him 
which our instrument affords, rather than the 
more imperfect view of the dim past. This 
truest view is the one Jesus gives us. He gives 
us essential Christianity, rescued from hindering 
incumbrances. 



126] 



III. THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

John 8: 32. ''Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you jree^ 

By judging the Bible in the light of what is 
fundamental and permanent in the teaching of 
Jesus, there is discovered considerable that is 
provincial, temporary, and inadequate in the con- 
ception of God and of his will for man. This is 
specially true of portions of the Old Testament. 
There is much that belongs to the history of this 
growing religion, but has little significance for 
our day. The Bible itself furnishes the standards 
which compel this conclusion. 

Viewing the Bible thus, the question naturally 
arises. What is left? If so much is superseded, 
does anything abide? and if so, what? The an- 
swer is very clear; everything is left. All that 
ever was vital and true and of value in really 
redeeming man abides. Truth is eternal. Views 
of the Bible cannot change it. We have made 
nothing untrue which ever was true; but our 
added light helps us better to see what was true 
and what was not true. 

To those who fear that this view of the Bible 
destroys authority in general or the authority of 
the Bible in particular, we must reply that just 

[27] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

the opposite is true; it places authority on a 
firmer foundation. It is just because we are 
unwilling to trust our lives to or be satisfied with 
anything short of the most complete authority 
that we insist on following Jesus in his rejection 
of the inadequate teaching found in some por- 
tions of the Old Testament. It is not less au- 
thority that we seek but more and truer. The 
meaning of religion for our lives is so significant, 
the interests at stake are so important, that we 
should be satisfied with nothing short of the best. 

It is for such reasons as these that those who 
know the facts are unwilling to trust these sacred 
interests to teachings based upon a theory of the 
Bible not supported by the evidence. The simple 
facts make it impossible for any one who will 
face them to believe in the verbal infallibility of 
the Bible. 

Lyman Abbott well says in his book, "My Four 
Anchors" : "An infallible book would mean, first, 
that Jehovah communicated the truth to the 
writers and that the writers were able infallibly 
to understand it; next, that they were able in- 
fallibly to utter it ; next, that their utterance was 
infallibly preserved through all the changes of 
the a^sres ; next, that it was infallibly translated by 
infallible translators; and, finally, and hardest 
of all to understand, is that you and I infallibly 
comprehend it." 

In the New Testament there are approximately 

[28] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

one hundred references to the Old Testament 
which are not exact quotations. Matt. 27 : 9 
quotes a prophecy from Zechariah as being from 
Jeremiah. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke 
do not agree. The inscription over the cross is 
different in each of the four Gospels. The Ser- 
mon on the Mount in Matthew and Luke is not 
the same. In the Old Testament the account of 
David buying the threshing floor from Araunah 
the Jebusite is different as given in 2 Sam. 24: 
18-25, from the account in i Chron. 21 : 18-27. 
The price paid in one place is fifty shekels of sil- 
ver ; in the other it is six hundred shekels of gold. 

These are but samples of variations and dis- 
crepancies which simply put verbal infallibility 
out of the question. 

Many of the Old Testament teachings and ac- 
counts were handed down by word of mouth 
from generation to generation. At last they were 
written down, often more than one man writing 
an account of the same things. In several cases 
two or three and sometimes more of these ac- 
counts were combined by some author. Except 
that these accounts often differed more widely, 
the result is much the same as it would be if an 
author attempted to combine our four Gospels 
into one account, which was actually done in 
Tatian's **Diatessoron." If you wish to study a 
good example of two interwoven accounts, read 
the story of the flood in the sixth and seventh 

[29] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

chapters of Genesis. Note that in chapter 6 : 19, 
20, Noah is commanded to take two of every beast, 
bird and living thing into the Ark, while in chap- 
ter T\2,, 3, he is commanded to take seven male 
and seven female of every clean beast, also seven 
each of the birds of the heavens. 

But why should we wish an infallible book? 
Since we believe with Jesus that redemption is 
a matter of new inner life rather than obedience 
to an external rule, since not the letter of the law 
but its spirit is all-important, an infallible exter- 
nal letter, even if we had it, would be of little 
value. 

But some one says, "If you reject one thing in 
the Bible as not authoritative, where will you 
draw the line and where stop?" The first answer 
is that we will keep all which according to the 
best light we can get and the truest spirit within 
us carries with it the note of conviction and 
appeals to us as true. The second answer is to 
ask the questioner where he is going to stop? 
Have you ever found a person who accepts and 
tries to live literally by all that is in the Bible ? 

For example, do you accept Paul's teaching 
that women should keep silence in the churches, 
that they should always keep the head covered? 
Do you wash one another's feet ? Do you accept 
the Old Testament teaching that any who pick 
up sticks with which to build a fire on the Sab- 
bath should be stoned? That according to cer- 

[30] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

tain Psalms we should hate certain people with 
"perfect hatred"? If all the Bible is of equal 
authority, why do you not hold to the polygamy 
countenanced in the Old Testament instead of to 
the New Testament standard? Is it not a legiti- 
mate question, Where are you going to stop? 

But you ask, "Who is to be the judge?'' It is 
clear that each must judge for himself after seek- 
ing all possible help and light. 

This raises the question as to the seat of au- 
thority, which is, after all, the crux of the whole 
problem. Is it in the Bible, the Church, in any ex- 
ternal thing or is it within each individual ? The 
immediate question is not what is authoritative 
but who is to determine and how we are to de- 
termine what has authority. 

Suppose you went to people who had never 
heard of Jesus, the Bible, or the Church, and told 
them that they must accept the authority of one 
of these or of all three. Would you expect them 
to do so without asking any questions or search- 
ing for reasons why they should accept them as 
authority? If they did they would either be 
credulous or ignorant. If you expect them to 
accept your suggestions, you expect to give them 
reasons for so doing. But to what or to whom 
are your reasons to appeal? They must appeal 
to the judgment of each individual. Each must 
test them by such abilities for testing truth as he 
possesses. If your reasons for his accepting 

[31] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

Jesus, the Bible or the Church appeal to his judg- 
ment sufificiently he will accept them. In short, 
our moral agency implies that we must use our 
powers to determine what we will permit to enter 
our lives and have authority over us. If we do 
not do that we are not moral beings at all. 

Thus we find that the place where all authority 
for us is to be tested is within ourselves. If we 
say that we will let this or that person or the 
Church or any other agency decide our questions 
for us, then that simply means that the person 
or the institution make the appeal to us and be- 
cause we judge them capable we give them the 
right to decide for us. If we did not have strong 
evidence, which appealed to us as adequate, we 
would be wholly unwarranted in trusting their 
judgment. The final test and responsibility and 
judgment are with ourselves. If we refuse to 
decide these questions for ourselves, we cannot 
escape the equally great responsibility of decid- 
ing to let some other person or persons or insti- 
tution decide for us. We must pass upon the 
questions directly or indirectly. 

Some think we should accept the consensus of 
opinion, the judgment of the majority, as our 
authority. Do you realize that such a view would 
have made Martin Luther and all Protestantism 
impossible ? 

Others think the Bible should be our final 
authority. I have already pointed out that the 

[32] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

Bible must make its appeal to us and we must 
judge of its right to rule us. We must now take 
a further step and ask, Whose interpretation of 
the Bible should be authoritative? If you say 
the Church, then you must have tested the Church 
adequately and judged it as having full ability to 
decide for you. And again, what Church? If 
the Roman Catholic, then remember there would 
have been no Protestantism. If you say any 
other church, then, if it goes wrong, you have no 
remedy. If Jesus had accepted the authority of 
the Jewish Church, there would have been no 
Christianity. 

If you say the interpretation of the Holy 
Spirit, it must be said that equally good men, 
who are equally sure they are led by the Spirit, 
come to very different conclusions. The fine 
thing about it is that they may thus differ and 
still both be equally Christian. No, we simply 
cannot escape the responsibility of making the 
decision for ourselves, either directly or by choos- 
ing whom or what is to decide for us. 

Truth is our final authority and we must be 
the judges of what is true or of the abilities and 
adequacy of those who are to decide for us. In 
either case the fixual test of authority is within 
ourselves. 

In deciding what or who is true, we should 
take account of all obtainable evidence, weigfhing 
it as best we may, seek the guidance of the Spirit 

[33] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

of Truth and then make our decision, revising it 
from time to time as we get more light. 

In matters religious and ethical Jesus may well 
be considered our final authority. His essential 
teaching has been proved in the lives of untold 
millions. He is the truth as to God's redemptive 
purpose, as to what is our right relation to God 
and the right attitude to fellow man. 

Applied to the Bible this means that such por- 
tions as appeal to us as true, which grip our lives 
and help us, should be given place in our lives. 
This does not mean that only what we judge to 
be true is actually true. We may be mistaken; 
many things may be true and ought to be authori- 
tative for us to which we have never responded. 
But it does mean that somewhere along the line 
we pass judgment and are responsible for decid- 
ing. 

That we are responsible for our decision need 
cause us little concern if we earnestly desire the 
truth. The really important things are. few in 
number, usually simple, and make their own direct 
and strong appeal. The two great commandments, 
the Golden Rule, faith in God as Father and in 
Jesus as Master and Saviour, and the kind of 
spirit and purpose Jesus wished us to possess, 
these are not difficult to discern. 

Most of us have little opportunity to become 
expert Biblical students, acquainted with the de- 
tailed results of scholarship. Fortunately this is 

[34] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

not at all necessary. What we need is to be 
simple, natural and honest in our approach and 
in the use of such material as we have time to 
consider. We are not called upon to explain all 
difficulties. The best of us must frankly say 
regarding many things, I do not know. In the 
light of Jesus' spirit and teaching it is not difficult 
to select the most important religious and moral 
teachings in the Old and New Testaments. 

It would help us so much in this entire matter 
if we only realized that Christianity is primarily 
an experience rather than an explanation, a way 
of life rather than a theory about life. We have 
habitually said that "salvation is by faith," which 
is quite correct. But when some one substitutes 
for faith the word belief, meaning by this our 
theories about God and life, then it is all wrong. 
A man may believe everything about God and 
Christ and be a scoundrel. But faith that saves, 
though it must have enough conviction about 
God and Christ to come to them, must have as its 
primary factor that trust which means the actual 
committal of the life to God and Christ. 

It may be illustrated as follows: suppose we 
come to the border of a beautiful lake and desire 
to get across. There is an old, rather dilapidated 
boat at hand. We hesitate to commit our lives 
to such a craft. The owner explains to us that 
it is safe and succeeds in fully convincing us. 
That is belief. But the boat cannot take us across 

[35] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

unless we get in, unless we actually commit our 
lives to it. When we do that it shows trust or 
faith. So God can only save us when we commit 
our lives to him through Christ for forgiveness, 
new life and guidance. 

When we thus think of Christianity as a com- 
mitment of life, as a way in which to live, it is 
easy to discover this way of life in our New 
Testament and we will be little disturbed by vary- 
ing interpretations. 

Therefore it need not concern us that there 
is much in the Bible which is provincial and 
temporary, if there is also that which is universal 
and eternal. And that is exactly the fact. There 
is that which is universal, eternal, ultimate in 
the Bible, as well as that which is provincial and 
temporary. Both elements are found in both 
Testaments. There is enough in the Old Testa- 
ment that is eternally true about God and life to 
enable any who really wish to find the true God 
to do so. The two great commandments and the 
Golden Rule are in the Old Testament. But that 
true God is more adequately revealed and much 
more easily found in the New Testament. 

Some may question whether essential Chris- 
tianity is ultimate in its revelation of God's char- 
acter and purpose and in its individual and social 
ideal. Without hesitation it may be said that for 
this life there is nothing above and beyond Jesus' 
revelation of the Father and his ideal for human- 

[36] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

ity. His conception of God as Spirit, as love, 
as Father, as friend, as Saviour has nothing be- 
yond it, whether we consider his teaching or the 
manifestation of his Father in his own work and 
life. He lifted religion out of all national, racial 
and ecclesiastical limitations and made it uni- 
versal. When Dr. Barrows was puzzled as to 
what prayer he should use in opening the Par- 
liament of Religions, a Hindoo suggested that the 
Lord's Prayer was universal in word and spirit. 

This talk about going beyond Jesus' ideal for 
humanity is utterly without foundation. If there 
is anything beyond loving God with all one's 
powers and one's neighbor as himself, what is it, 
except it be this, *'A new commandment I give 
unto you, that ye love one another even as I have 
loved you." If there is anything beyond being 
perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, if 
anything can exalt the worth of human personal- 
ity more than, "What shall it profit a man if he 
gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" if 
there is anything beyond the redemptive purpose 
and love of God as expressed in Jesus Christ, if 
there is anything beyond the determined purpose 
to have the will of God done on earth as it is in 
heaven, if you have heard of a higher social ideal 
than that of the kingdom of God on earth, in 
which righteousness, love, brotherhood and the 
will of God are to reign, many of us are most 
anxious to hear about it. 

[37] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

Jesus did not tell us just how this or that 
should be done. Had he done so, much of his 
teaching would have been provincial and obsolete 
as soon as uttered. To the one who said, "Bid 
my brother that he divide the inheritance with 
me," he replied, "Who made me a judge or a 
divider over you? Take heed and beware of 
covetousness ; f on a man's life consisteth not in 
the abundance of the things which he possesseth.'' 
Instead of deciding disputes, he went back of 
them and sought to remove the cause. Had the 
brothers not been covetous there would have been 
no dispute about the inheritance. Jesus dealt with 
fundamental and universal principles; hence his 
essential teaching is as true today as it was 
when uttered. But for fear some may get the 
idea that Jesus was not definite and concrete, 
note that his entire life was given to illustrating 
how this principle of love operates under various 
circumstances. Jesus gave us ultimate religious 
teaching, and what is more, he realized this teach- 
ing in his own life. Jesus brings men into com- 
plete moral fellowship with God, throwing into 
their lives the mightiest redemptive force known 
to earth. Renan, who thought of Jesus only as 
a man, was compelled to say, "Whatever may be 
the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be 
surpassed." 

Do people fear for the authority of the Bible ? 
Some of it should not be authoritative. But this 

[38] 



THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 

universal truth, thic word of God contained 
within the Bible, has full authority. Nothing 
can destroy it and no theory of inspiration can 
increase it. The voice is that of our Father and 
"its authority is beyond the reach of criticism 
as the soul is beyond the reach of physical analy- 
sis.'' It is not dependent upon the accuracy 
of manuscripts. It finds us, as it has the right 
to find us, in our deepest depths and stands by 
its own self-evident truthfulness. Whatever we 
may think about the Christ, the best that we 
know of God, of man, and the way of Hfe come 
from him. What he was, God is ; in him we have 
seen the Father. 



[39] 



IV. FINDING AND TEACHING THE 
POSITIVE VALUES 

Is. 40:8, **The grass wither eth, the flower fadeth; hut the 
word of our God shall stand forever y 

This view of the Bible helps us to find its real 
message. When the lower may be judged and 
interpreted in the light of the higher, the Bible 
becomes the supreme book for the redemption 
and religious education of the race. It has a 
surpassing variety and wealth of material. There 
is history, legend, law, folklore, drama, tragedy, 
poetry, philosophy, proverb, sermon, epistle, par- 
able and historical romance. 

"This book has been unjustly attacked, and 
foolishly defended." To the outsider it may 
seem to lack unity. Instead of systematically 
discussing human nature and need, it plunges us 
into the sea of human existence. It is a book of 
life, where every human experience is portrayed, 
every type of humanity moves across the stage; 
it is not a museum where dead things are classi- 
fied and in order. It is the most human of books, 
and for that reason most divine. 

A paraphrase of two pages from John Wat- 
son's book, **God's Message to the Human Soul," 
will help to bring this out. **The reader is 
plunged into an ocean of human details" : The 

[41] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

love affairs of man and maid; quarrels and recon- 
ciliations between brothers ; bargains in business ; 
feuds between rival tribes, with raids and cap- 
tures; the choice of kings and their anointing; 
the evil doing of kings and their assassination; 
the orations of statesmen as they warn and com- 
fort their nation ; the adroit arrangements of ec- 
clesiastics ; the collision of parties in the Christian 
Church ; radiant records of chivalrous deeds ; the 
black story of acts of treachery; the romance of 
unselfish friendship and the blind enmity of re- 
ligious bigotry; the career of the successful man 
and the unmerited suffering of the martyr; the 
devotion of mother to child, and the jealousy of 
women fighting for the same man's love ; the idyll 
of childhood, the strength of young manhood, 
the mellow wisdom of old age; nomads of the 
desert, dwellers in the city; prophets and sages, 
ploughmen and vinedressers, soldiers and traders, 
rich men and beggars, holy matrons and women 
who are sinners ; patriarchs with huge herds and 
apostles empty-handed, priests offering sacrifice 
and publicans collecting their gains — all these, 
and manifold more, appear in unarranged and 
natural procession. How artless and yet how 
fascinating! The whole comedy and tragedy of 
life are here; it is a more glorious Homer, and 
a more enticing Scott; it is a larger and more 
vivid Shakespeare. 

[42] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

But is this just an unarranged mass of mate- 
rial without a unifying thread? Not at all. There 
is reason for this entirely and unreservedly 
human portrayal. The story of the patriarchs is 
not recorded because they were successful stock 
farmers, but because they were pioneers in the 
quest of the soul for God. Joseph's victory over 
temptation and his attainment of splendid char- 
acter, rather than his success, immortalize him. 
Moses' career was a romance, but his sterling 
points are his choice of the unseen above the 
seen and his identification of himself with the 
suflfering people of God. The prophets were 
statesmen and forceful writers, but spiritual 
vision and fellowship with the eternal give them 
their permanent worth. The psalmists were poets 
of high rank, but they seized the heart of human- 
ity because they sang the epic of the soul. *'As 
you travel down Old Testament history you may 
find yourself in strange byways, but sooner or 
later you are brought face to face with God. 
Righteousness is what the writers demand and 
God is the one person they ever seek. There is 
upward progress ; from the valley the path climbs 
the hillside until it reaches the finer air of the 
gospel uplands. The details of the book are only 
the body ; the living soul of the book is religion, 
the fellowship of man with God." ''One purpose 
governs and illuminates, invigorates and glorifies 

[43] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

the Bible, and that purpose is spiritual. It is the 
supreme book of religion." 

Would that we knew how to use and teach this 
Book! It is in the interest of larger, more in- 
telligent use that these pages are written. A finer 
collection of pedagogical material for teaching 
religion and morals cannot be found. Here we 
see action, good and bad, bringing forth its logical 
results. There is some chaflf, but there is far more 
wheat, and the wheat may become for us and 
for our children the very bread of life. 

What are some of the vital and permanent 
values in these pages? What is left of the crea- 
tion story, if it is not accurate geology? What 
is left? All is left; the priority and primacy of 
God. That is all that ever was there. "In the 
beginning God created." Since God is there 
guaranteeing meaning in creation, what need we 
care as to just how or when? "Let us make man 
in our own image." Man the offspring of God, 
by nature akin to God; that fact guarantees our 
high possibilities and eternal destiny. 

The Garden of Eden story may be allegorical, 
but it is a true interpretation of the way in which 
temptation and sin attack the individual and the 
race. What matters it that we cannot find that 
particular garden, since every one can identify the 
experience in his own life, thus making all lands 
gardens of Eden? 

Abraham, that forerunner of the Pilgrim 

[44] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

Fathers, generous, courageous, faithful, right- 
eous, seeking a new home under the call of God, 
stands out so majestically in the midst of his dim 
antiquity that he has deservedly become **the 
father of the faithful." Isaac and Rebekah are 
splendid examples of what divided counsel be- 
tween parents will do in troubling a family. For 
genuine love and devotion, Jacob serving seven 
years for Rachel, which ''seemed to him but a 
few days, for the love he had to her," is a beauti- 
ful illustration. Had we come upon the story 
of Joseph in booklet form for the first time, it 
would fascinate us by its plot, rivet our attention 
by its rapidity of action, and lift our ideals by its 
revelation of lofty character. To this day its 
moral message is undimmed. It is most valuable 
religious education material. 

Where in history will you find more splendid 
unselfishness than in Moses, who left the side of 
Pharaoh to become the champion and leader of 
a horde of slaves? or truer mark of leadership 
than when he identifies himself with his rebellious 
people and asks God, in case he cannot save 
Israel, to blot him out with his own people ? The 
Ten Commandments are as true and binding as 
they ever were. To be sure, a person who has 
the love of God in his heart does not need them, 
but that docs not make it any less true that a 
man should not steal. The book of the covenant, 
the heart of the Mosaic legislation, has ideals of 

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THE POSITIVE VALUES 

national cooperation and well-being, which put 
many of our own to shame. "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself" is but one of the many 
splendid teachings from the Holiness Code in the 
book of Leviticus. And "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy 
soul and with all thy might" is found in the book 
of Deuteronomy. There is the transient here, but 
also the permanent; there is the provincial, but 
also the universal. 

In all literature there is not a more beautiful 
pastoral than the story of Ruth who, leaving 
kindred and native land in her love for Naomi, 
insists, ''Whither thou goest, I will go ; and where 
thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be 
my people, and thy God my God; where thou 
diest, will I die, and there will I be buried." 
Where will you find a choicer elegy than David's 
lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan, 
where he forgets Saul's attempts upon his own 
life, and sings, "Saul and Jonathan were lovely 
and pleasant in their lives, and in their death 
they were not divided" ? So long as friend shall 
value friendship, and unselfish comradeship shall 
be esteemed, the friendship between Jonathan 
and David will lift our souls toward the sublim- 
est human relationships. So long as we immor- 
talize deeds of valor in songs of praise, so long 
as youth shall aspire to patriotic and heroic en- 

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THE POSITIVE VALUES 

deavor^ the story of David and Goliath will thrill 
the hearts of our young. 

The problem, why do the righteous suffer, has 
never received more dramatic treatment than in 
the book of Job. The Psalms cover every range 
of human life, express every type of religious 
sentiment, and reach from deepest sin and dark- 
est human passion to divinest ideals and sub- 
limest trust. For the fruit of righteousness read 
the first and fifteenth psalms; for confidence in 
God the great good Shepherd, adequate to every 
deepest human need, read the twenty-third; 
for God as the refuge and undergirding power of 
the soul, read the ninetieth and ninety-first; for 
thanksgiving the one hundredth; for God's all- 
searching omnipresence the one hundred thirty- 
ninth. 

But the prophets are the superlative religious 
teachers of the Old Testament. Here we do not 
listen to pale-faced ascetics, hidden away from 
the world, not to men who permit religion to be 
separated from life, but to statesmen of the first 
rank, strong, virile men, standing in the midst 
of their nation's political, social, and religious 
life, daring to speak for God, to kings, princes, 
priests and people. 

Isaiah scorns their religious ceremonies and 
sacrifices, demanding that they "seek justice, re- 
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead 
for the widow." "What mean ye that ye 

[47] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

crush my people, and grind the faces of the 
poor?'* ''Woe unto them that join house to 
house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, 
and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of 
the land !'* Here is a man with a social as well 
as an individual message. God's ideal is of a 
king, reigning in righteousness, princes ruling in 
justice, and of man as a hiding-place from the 
wind and a covert from the tempest. The second 
Isaiah, a prophet of the exile, is the spiritual guide 
of his captive people, sublime in his thought of 
God working his will among the nations, tender 
as the love of a mother, when he pictures God as 
feeding his flock like a shepherd, gathering the 
lambs in his arms, carrying them in his bosom 
and gently leading those that have their young. 
With penetrating vision, he sees that God's re- 
demption cannot be wrought by the nation as a 
whole, nor even by a considerable remnant, but 
finally by the suffering servant, portrayed in the 
fifty-third chapter, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 
He calls his people to break every yoke, to let 
the oppressed go free, and finally sees the Spirit 
of God upon one who shall bring **good tidings 
to the poor, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim 
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound." 

Amos, with God's indignant righteousness 
burning in his pure soul, turns from his sycomore 
trees, and calls those who have ''sold the right- 

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THE POSITIVE VALUES 

eous for silver, and the needy for a pair of 
shoes/' that crush the poor, that oppress the 
needy, that are at ease in Zion, that are not 
grieved for the affliction of Joseph — calls them 
to prepare to meet God, who will set a plumb-line 
in Israel ; calls them to ''hate the evil and love the 
good, and establish justice in the gate." 

Hosea, prophet of God's tender and unfailing 
love, with an evangel winsome as the gospel, 
exposes his people's sin, sees them unfaithful as 
a wife who has become a harlot, yet woos them 
back from their degradation by telling them of 
God's care for them : **When Israel was a child, 
then I loved him. I taught Ephraim to walk ; I 
took them on my arms ; but they knew not that 
I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, 
with bands of love. How shall I give thee up, 
Ephraim? how shall I let thee go, Israel? My 
heart is turned within me, my compassions are 
kindled together; for I am God, and not man." 

Jeremiah, prophet of the bleeding heart, bur- 
dened with his people's sin, yet sees the day when 
God shall write his law, no longer on tables of 
stone but in their hearts. 

Micah, prophet of the poor, has a message 
which burns through his people's individual and 
social sin like a consuming fire. He cuts away 
their pretensions, rejects their burnt offerings, 
and brings them face to face with God, whose 

[49] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

sole requirement is that they "do justly, love 
kindness and walk humbly with God." 

The New Testament is inestimably rich in its 
view of God and man, and incomparable in the 
personality that irradiates it all. There is some 
alloy even here, but there is pure gold in abun- 
dance. The Sermon on the Mount stands alone in 
the religious and moral world. The parables of 
our Lord are unequaled as instruments for re- 
ligious teaching. Epistles expand, interpret, and 
adjust the Christian message to the need of grow- 
ing churches. And the writer of most of them 
has found the answer to Job's question, why do 
the righteous suffer, in that power through which 
we can make all things work together for good. 
In this New Testament we find essential Chris- 
tianity, "not Christianity as a deposit of truth, 
but as seed for the bearing of more and more 
abundant harvests." 

The mask was never torn from the face of sin 
with more unerring accuracy, and the veil was 
never so completely lifted from the face of the 
God whose supreme purpose is to bear away 
the sin of the world, at whatever cost. The skil- 
ful surgeon's knife is applied to cut away the 
last vestige of cancerous sin, and the healing love 
of God is oil and wine to wounded and bleeding 
lives. The clouds are recognized, but these clouds 
are shot through with rays of light and drenched 
with golden glory. There are lives broken by sin, 

[50] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

but this evangel causes the "note of joy to break 
even from the bruised reed." The greatest thing 
here is not the ultimate moral ideal, it is the per- 
sonality which lifts us up to realize the ideal. 
Through it all and back of it all, there is a life 
which in its daily walk, even more than in its 
teaching, reveals the character and redemptive 
purpose of God as we have never seen them be- 
fore or since. In him, we see what God is, what 
God means, and what is God's purpose of love 
toward man. Jesus Christ is the master of life, 
and the master of death. He holds the secret 
of the ages. Into our lives, while we live, he 
throws the dynamic of God's sacrificial love ; and 
when the shadows lengthen, when our sun of life 
is setting, he lifts the rainbow of immortal hope 
before our eyes, to cheer us on the lonely pil- 
grimage. 

If you ask how this race developed such re- 
ligious genius as to give the world its universal 
religion, it may be said that they did it in the 
most natural manner ; for inspiration and revela- 
tion are subject to the laws of daily life. God 
early led them to the conviction that religion is 
fundamental to adequate living. Therefore they 
made it their vocation to find God; they hun- 
gered and thirsted for him; they talked of him 
as they lay down at night, when they rose up in 
the morning, as they gathered for the breaking 
of bread and as they journeyed by the way. They 

[51] 



THE POSITIVE VALUES 

developed spiritual insight and sensitiveness, 
making it possible for God to impart ; they opened 
the windows of their souls toward God, and the 
Father, who above all things seeks just such 
opportunity, let in the light. The process is no 
different today. God still waits for us to develop 
the soul life that can hear, the spiritual insight 
that can see. This takes generations and can only 
come through the cooperation of the family. 
When we cease teaching religion to our children, 
when we cease making it a matter of supreme 
family concern, when we substitute for the 
Lord's Day, with its church life, its high religious 
thought and holy aspiration, the week end, with 
its emphasis upon pleasure, visiting and sight- 
seeing, the lamp of religion will begin to grow 
dim ; there will be no certain hearing of the voice 
of God; we will develop no Beecher or Brooks; 
for we have turned from the fountain of living 
waters to broken cisterns which can hold no 
water ; we have forsaken the springs from which 
alone cometh the water of life. 

This modern Bible, with certain portions ex- 
alted above other portions, because of their su- 
preme worth, is no longer, as Curtis tells us, a 
"mechanical record of doctrines and forced divine 
manifestations; it is a book of genuine, historic 
life, an epic of salvation, showing the living 
process of God's revelation through Israel." And 
the most fundamentally important thing in life 

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THE POSITIVE VALUES 

is to know the secret of this book, the secret of 
Him who, in Palestine, lifted religion out of all 
national, racial, and sectarian limitations, and 
made it such oneness of life with our God and 
Father that we treat our fellow men here and 
now as God treats them. 



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